Accidental Watermelon Margaritas!

So, remember last week I showed you about the watermelon shot glasses? Remember how the video made it look all easy peasy lemon squeezey? Welp.

My first clue should have been when I walked up to the giant bin of watermelons + thought "okay, so you *thump* it to see if it sounds "solid" to know if it's ripe" then I thought "wait. what the hell does a solid watermelon thump sound like?" that was a good start. Miracuoulsy, I picked a ripe one. Like. oh man, makes your mouth water to think about it ripe. Anyways. It started out great. I managed to cut only the watermelon, right down the middle! 

Simple enough, next step is to cut that half into a square! I can do that! I flipped it over, cut it into a nice square, then when I went to turn it back over to cut into the shot glasses, it fell apart. (remember what I said about how ripe it was? also, my pinterest projects have a habit of falling apart.....) Then I'm left with a bunch of oddly cut watermelon pieces + nothing to do with the tequila! ENTER A SOLUTION! 

Obviously margs are always my backup plan, since it was a zillion (err 85) degrees, I thought "hey, why not frozen ones?!" So I hunted down the blender, chopped up the watermelon, filled it up with ice, and you know, a hefty amount of tequila, and hit blend! 

Pour in a fancy glass until after your take the picture, add an umbrella, and enjoy!! 

You know what they say, when life gives you lemons, make margaritas! (wait, that's not right is it?) Well, there you have it! A pinterest fail turned tasty margarita for a nice sunday funday by the pool with an old book. What are you sippin' on? 

Heart of Darkness Margarita AND A Giveaway!

You know, I don't know why I thought I would be recovered enough from my vacation to handle a Tuesday. So while I'm nursing a sunburn + dealing with a book hangover (you know the feeling after you finish a good book? you're like bummed it's over + not ready to move on to a new one? that's me.) I'll be sharing that book this weeeeeek! Plus a zillion sunset pictures. Plus a lot of other fun things. but I COULDN'T miss Cinco, where else would you get a margarita recipe?! we're giving away these adorable Kate Spade desk accessories!

SO, when I stopped at TJ's for the wine for last week's sangria, I thought "oh, I can totally grab margarita mix here!" I was wrong. Then I saw that this mango passionfruit juice was called "heart of darkness" so I was pretty sold. Anyways, this is about as easy as my tequila sunrise. I have to be honest, I didn't think that this was going to be as delicious as it was so this is the only picture I took. Hashtag bad blogger. Anyways. It's easy! Fill your glass with ice, pour in your desired amount of tequila, fill the rest up with heart of darkness mango passionfruit juice (no sugar! real juice! it's good for you, duh!) mix it in one of your many stadium cups on hand, splash of grand marnier (let's be honest, I only have that at my bar because my dad needed room in his bar + had a full bottle. so any orange liqueur is perfect, I know you have it because you're making my regular margaritas.) Mix a little more + enjoy!

Okay, now that you're enjoying your tasty margarita, it's time to start entering to win these adorable accessories for your desk!

Your workspace should always inspire and these dreamy, rose gold supplies and notepad definitely do the trick. Enjoy the stapler and tape dispenser (with fun idioms) to dress up any desk place. And use your cute pad for any kind of note.These ladies joined me to giveaway these great Kate Spade items!Amanda | Suz | Liz | Brooke | Kerri Kristyn| Kasey | Daisy | Faith | Nina

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 Reasons Jose Cuervo is the Perfect Valentine

HAPPY FRIDAY BEFORE VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYBODY! How appropriate is it that the day before is Friday the 13th? Now, after yesterday, if you expected my Valentine to be anyone other than my number one man Jose Cuervo, I think you need to revisit everything about me.

He's always there for you:: Jose has been there through breakups and mean girls and not getting the dream job. Never makes you think that you're anything but a pretty pretty princess who should TOTALLY dance on that table. Just do it. He's gonna be there cheering you on. 

dance dance dance

He ALWAYS thinks you should have more queso, or another slice of pizza. Just do you girlfriend:: You will never hear Jose say "oh, are you sure you want another slice of pizza?" nope. he's gonna help you call + order another one. He even knows that you secretly have that Visa card number memorized.

pizza is a theme. obviously

He never makes you play games:: "don't double text" "ladies don't text first" "if you ignore him he'll like you more" guys. that's exhausting. Jose is always there. Literally,  just hanging out on the bar cart (that I SWEAR I'm going to blog about. I promise.) waiting for you to need a margarita. You don't have to worry about whether or not he thinks you're being needy or clingy or whatever else you're supposed to be.

sorry emily post

ALLEGEDLY he's even super good for you:: I love it. Every time there's an article about the health benefits of tequila, it's shared with me. Then this happened. I'm a little sad that Elite Daily beat me to that one. Anyways, I bet Jose is the reason I'm skinny. Not the high metabolism or the fact that I think you should walk everywhere.  **side note. it seems every Elite Daily article is about tequila. Why haven't they hired me yet? I could write all the tequila articles. **

hot mess

The only thing better than one margarita is two margaritas:: Seriously. The more, the merrier. You don't have to get jealous over Jose hanging out with another girl because all girls who drink tequila are awesome. End of argument.

drink drank drunk

So, those are the five reasons Jose Cuervo is the best Valentine. Because I can buy myself flowers + chocolates + pizza. Jose + I will be hanging out this weekend, bring some orange juice + come hang out! What are you doing for the lovey dovey made up holiday?

Thursty Thursday :: The BEST Tequila Sunrise

I stumbled on this Thursty Thursday (ps, spelling it that way is really what sealed the deal for me...) linkup a couple of weeks ago when Lauren was co-hosting + I have been saving this post for the Thursday before Valentine's Day ever since. OBVIOUSLY I plan on spending some quality time with my Valentine, Mr. Cuervo, so I thought I'd share the best way to make a Tequila Sunrise. From the expert due to the sheer volume of sunrises I drink.

Okay. This is probably one of the easiest cocktails out there -- both to make + to mess up. Here's what you need:

• Tequila
• Orange juice (fresh. good orange juice. I get really bummed if it's the kind that comes from the soda wand. #orangejuicesnob)
• Grenadine. (OR A BOTTLE OF MARISCHINO CHERRIES IN THE SYRUP.)
• bonus :: cherries or fruit of some kind because yum. 

NOW. This is very important. I like to do ice, tequila, then orange juice -- that way I don't really have to stir it. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to mixing drinks. Make it as strong or as orange juice-y as you like. I'd recommend the normal ratio -- like a three second pour to each glass. Once you have the orange juice + tequila ratio to your liking add just a splash of grenadine. JUST. A. SPLASH. That stuff is like, 4565% sugar okay? Orange juice is already kind of sweet + tart, so that's more sugar. If put too much grenadine it's gonna make your teeth hurt. Stir + enjoy!!

GUYS. I made that. HOW. COOL? Also, it's a fact that we don't have any cups in our apartment that didn't either come from pint night, a brewery, or my sticky fingers. So none of them match. Which makes them all match right? What are you drinking tonight?

DEEP FRIED TEQUILA SHOTS.

Apparently part of my new blogging plan is to include more recipes. That was a total surprise. but. These are too fantastic not to share. So when this was first posted on Oh. Bite It, at least five separate people sent it to me, because obviously. So I had to try it! Honestly. it's super easy and they taste like funnel cake. You don't even taste the tequila.

Okay. So, you'll have to forgive me, because I took all of these pictures like, two days after I got my camera. I'm loving it though, because I can see that in a couple of weeks my pictures drastically improved. So that's a plus right? ANYWAYS. This is so easy. Here's what you need:

• tequila, duh. 
• powdered sugar
• angel food cake (I got mine for $4 with my kroger plus card 'cause ain't nobody got time or eggs for that.)
• oil (I used canola oil, because I don't really know what the difference is + my dad said it would work fine... haha)
• pot 

First things first, this is going to make a mess. Don't say I didn't warn you, okay? I'm asking for a cute little personal deep fryer because I'm so obsessed with this stuff. So what you're going to do is chop the angel food cake up into cute little cubes. They're gonna stay about that size, so whatever you determine to be tasty poppable size. Then, get the oil warm. I test to see if it's ready by dripping some water in it, you'll know if it's ready. Okay! Now the fun part! I poured a bowl of tequila, woo wooooo! So don't soak it! Just dip it in the tequila. If you get it way too soaked it will absolutely explode. It's crazy. So, dip the cake in tequila, drop it in the hot grease for a couple seconds until it turns golden brown, and then take it out! let them dry on a paper towel, you know like bacon! Then sprinkle powdered sugar on top of them and enjoy!! Careful though, the booze doesn't cook out! 

Okay, so I didn't take any after pictures, because I was busy eating my tasty tequila bites. Let me know if you try this out! They're soooo tasty! 

So You're Going to the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party...

A few years ago, former UGA President Mike Adams tried to get them to stop calling the Georgia Florida game the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Maybe that's why he's no longer the University President... If you're piling in a car and making the ride down to Jacksonville this weekend, here's what you need to know!

a not so neutral location // okay. supposedly Georgia Florida is played at a neutral site. That's not true, Jacksonville is in Florida. It's also only an hour and a half from Gainesville, aka The Swamp. It's five and a half hours from Athens. However, the stadium is split up ticket wise, 50/50. 

an ugly rivalry // if you need to know how to spot a Gator fan, check out Sarah's description, be on the lookout for jorts. This rivalry is probably the biggest one we have. I mean, I don't even want to cheer for Florida when it comes down to SEC vs Non-SEC, but I do. We can't even agree on the record. Georgia claims the first meeting was in 1904, and the record stands with us leading 50-40-2. Florida, on the other hand, claims that first game in 1904 didn't happen + that the record is 49-40-2..

LINDSAY SCOTT LINDSAY SCOTT! // in the category of Larry Munson calls I can recite by heart -- this is probably number one. back third down on the eight, in trouble it'll give you goosebumps the stadium, well the stadium fell down. He even explains how all the Georgia fans stay up in St. Simons + Jekyll Island man, is there gonna be some property destroyed tonight. HE EVEN SAYS DAWGS. ON. TOP. Bless it, I miss Larry. 

okefenokee oar // up until 2009, this game was played without a trophy, but that's around the time Mike Adams thought he should try to get everyone to stop calling it the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail party. We really weren't his biggest fan. Anyways, the Okefenokee Oar is a 10 foot wooden oar that has logos for both Universities on it. It's silly, but aren't all rivalry trophies? 

for good measure, here's Tim Tebow crying.

gators wear jean shorts // it's the truth man,  I've seen it. In that picture up there I'm in the corner because we're actually trying to get a picture of the guy behind us who's wearing orange. denim. pants. not just orange. not just jeans. orange. jeans. ORANGE. don't get me started on orange..  also, just ask this little nugget okay? 

If you're looking for me, I'LL BE THERE! watch for me on TV + stuff, maybe they'll have picked up the story of my lucky dress. I promise I'll try really super hard not to get in any fights. Linking up with Sarah + Karli! What games are you excited for this weekend? Will you be chanting gators wear jean shorts just slightly less adorable than that little nugget? 

W is for Writer's Block

Guys. I think my ponytail is on too tight today and that's the reason I have such writer's block. I mean honestly, I can't even come up with any good tweets, and we all know I have an opinion on everything. So, instead of me coming here and writing a few crappy paragraphs, I figured I'd let some other folks speak for me. did I really just say "folks"? 

check it out, I made that!

Also. I've decided I need these prints. All of them. For my new bar cart that I'm gonna make.

HOW CUTE IS THIS? THEY HAVE SO MANY MORE!

this one too. actually. there's really just a lot of margarita prints that I want.. but these two fo'sho.

LOOK HOW HAPPY THE LIME IS OMG.

Check it. You can see all of the prints I have to have [and some that I think I can recreate..] right here. The question is, why aren't you following me on Pinterest yet????

Follow Kasey Decker's board B A R || I N S P I R A T I O N on Pinterest.

Prost Y'all! Oktoberfest in Helen, GA

Oktoberfest is a sixteen day festival in Munich, Alex at Speaking Denglish has everything you need to know before you go, reading it will give you major wanderlust. I have the real Oktoberfest on my travel bucket list, I'm thinking of even adding it to my 101 before 1001 [that list is really hard to make...] That's a little bit more of a trip than I could swing on a weekend, so instead I knocked it off of my fall bucket list and we hopped on the Atlanta Bar Tours Oktoberfest Bus Trip!

I'm new to the whole party bus trip, aside from the date night busses we took in college. Those weren't really party busses, since you couldn't take any booze on those busses. The first announcement on this bus was "there are four coolers of beer and wine on the bus, water and soda goes under the bus, so if you want water you might be on the wrong trip!" Easily the best thing to hear at 9:45 am. 

Helen is the most adorable little town, known for their main street modeled after small Bavarian towns. If you haven't been to Helen, and you're anywhere close, you're definitely missing out. Even when it's not Oktoberfest, there are oodles of fun things to do. You can even shoot the Hooch up there! [no, the City of Helen didn't ask me to write this, I've just been going up there since I was a little girl..] 

Our first stop included a surprise marriage proposal, gigantic plastic beer steins [obviously, I lost mine at some point in the day], and the most delicious soft pretzel I have ever had in my entire life. There was live music and German treats at every stop. We made the rounds to all of the local spots and even convinced a bouncer that we would pay the cover on the way out. Then we hopped back on the bus and headed back home. That's a big selling point for me, sleeping in my own bed at the end of the night. 

I absolutely recommend Helen's Oktoberfest, if you want to go this year, you still can! The 44th Annual Oktoberfest in Helen Georgia runs through the first weekend in November this year. They do it every year, and Atlanta Bar Tours puts together the bus tour, but I recommend buying your tickets early, since the trip sells out every year! 

It's That Charles Schwab Wine!

This linkup almost makes me more excited about Wednesday than Friday. Calm down, I said almost. Thursday, you're still the redheaded stepchild [I can say that because I am a semi-redheaded stepchild.] Anyways, after a weekend in Athens, you know I have some fantastic confessions -- so here we go!

First of all, Saturday night we were talking about the Trader Joe's Two Buck Chuck wine and why it was so cheap. My friend started in on the story but kept saying it was Trader Joe who's wife took the wine profits, so I go "it's not Trader Joe, it's Charles Schwab!" to which they all go "you mean the investment banker?" It's Charles SHAW wine and I'm really cute.

source

I have maybe listened to the new T. Swift single a million times. I may even have immediately downloaded it. I may even have learned all of the words Monday night before I even got home. I don't even consider my love for her jams a "guilty pleasure" she's adorable, I dig her jams, if you don't like it you can move on or you know, give me twenty minutes and I'll be on to going on about Weezer's new jam. I feel zero parts sorry for it. I also feel zero parts sorry for sharing it again right here, right meow.

I'm like, super concerned about coming up with a clever name for my fantasy football team because Sarah set the bar pretty high already by calling the league "no punt intended" and her team being "Turn Down for Watt" I mean come on that's some big stuff to follow up. 

source

I was passive aggressively tweeted about yesterday, so I'm chalking that up to hateful comments on the Internet, which I'm pretty sure means I've officially made it, right? If using pinterest is wrong, I don't wanna be right y'all. To quote my girl T-Swift haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate baby

source

I'm not ashamed about any of these revelations y'all. Including the picture that has me in it, that I'm about to post next, because I'd like to close with the fact that we jumped in the fountain on North Campus long after midnight + I even instagrammed after midnight. [which I hashtagged then I thought about what people use the #twitterafterdark for, and immediately decided not to see what everyone else was instagramming after midnight...] I am sorry that it's grainy, iPhones + low lights, you know? 

What do you have to confess this week? I sure hope it's not that you haven't stopped by to see who else is confessing today!

Brewery Tours + Tastings :: Not Just for Beer Snobs!

If your local brewery isn't your favorite hangout -- I'm here to convince you otherwise. Living in the Atlanta area -- I'm pretty spoiled. We have excellent choices from the big dogs like SweetWater to up + coming places like Red Hare -- both of which should be on your Atlanta Bucket List if you're visiting + like to have a good time. So far I've explored SweetWater, Red Hare, Monday Night, + Red Brick. You should visit all of those places + try their beers too.

Reasons your local brewery should be your new hangout ::

• drink tickets :: most places you visit [read :: all the breweries I've ever been to] usually charge $10 + that gets you a souvenir pint glass + 6 drink tickets. Depending on how cool your bartender is + how well you tip them, the pours vary from about 3/4 of a glass to almost full [pro tip :: always tip your bartenders.]
• live music :: most of these brewery venues are pretty cool + planned for tastings. The thought process behind them being that they can double as event venues when not being used for tastings. Depending on your brewery of choice -- there will be some type of live music aspect :: Red Hare has music year round whereas SweetWater only has it during the warmer months. I'm a sucker for a live band. 
• happy hour[s] :: weekday tastings are usually right after work -- so 5:30 - 7:30. Let's be honest -- who doesn't want [need] a drink or two to unwind after work? It's a great place to unwind + hang out with your coworkers. Hate your coworkers? It's a great place to meet your friends + forget about your coworkers!
• souvenir pint glasses :: okay -- so my souvenir pint glass collection is to the point where if I go to a brewery [or Taco Mac pint night...] + I already have one [or 6..] of that particular glass -- I'll leave it for someone else to take home. I love the glasses though -- my house will probably only have pint glasses to drink from. 
• chill atmosphere :: unlike the bars in Buckhead -- breweries tend to have a laid back vibe. It's not that much of a fight to get to the bar + no one will hand you a shot of fireball when you least expect it. However, in my experience, brewery tours do tend to lead to a night out on the town.
• encouraged day drinking :: Saturday + Sunday tastings are during the afternoon! These are also the days that the breweries will most likely put on all sorts of fun activities -- beer release parties, birthday parties, food trucks! 
• drink local -- it's good for your soul :: most of these places are put together by people who were like "man -- we should buy a bar!" They're your neighbors + they're in it for mostly fun [obviously a little for the money] but you know you already shop local -- so you should drink local too!

My Atlanta Brewery Bucket List ::

• Terrapin -- I know it's hard to believe I went to UGA + never made it to Terrapin -- it just wasn't the cool thing to do yet.
• Blue Tarp
• Jekyll Brewing
• Three Taverns
• Burnt Hickory Brewing
• Any new brewery I come across...

Do you have a favorite brewery I missed? Somewhere I should add to my bucket list?

Super Cheap Wine Cork Shadow Box DIY

So I've been seeing these shadow boxes full of wine corks with cheeky wine quotes on the glass. They're selling on Etsy for like. $75 -- I thought "oh, I could totally do that" so I searched pinterest for "wine cork shadow boxes" + found only the ones that you can buy already completed (side note -- I just did that same pinterest search + there are tons of how-to's now. Figures.)

So I started this project a little before I thought "hey! I could blog about this!" + you'll have to forgive me for the late start on photos. Anyways -- here's what you'll need:

-- top loading shadow box (I found mine at Michael's + it even had a picture of wine corks in it..)
-- rubbing alcohol
-- "all purpose paint" (I used a Martha Stewart pearl color that specifically mentioned use on glass)
-- paint brushes
-- print out of the quote you want + how you want it to look (I used "the best wines are the ones we drink with friends")
-- beer or glass of wine..

First, you need to "cure" the glass with alcohol. Which means you have to basically clean the surface with alcohol... not drink beer.

Wait, this isn't what you meant by cure with alcohol?

Then tape your "stencil" inside the box. This was the best idea I could have had (unless I had a Circuit machine, because then this would have been so much easier...) after that, I painted over the letters + let them dry about an hour between coats, added some wine corks I had on hand, + viola! 

When it is nice + full of wine corks, you won't be able to see that I didn't think about the cardboard on the back showing through when I started the project. I wish that it was a little smoother -- but I like that you can tell it's handmade + not something I dropped a lot of money for. I spent about $20 on the entire thing. 

While I didn't manage to get a picture of myself, my friend Laura (the recipient of said shadowbox), + our first bottle(s) of wine enjoyed to add corks to the collection -- I did end up with this one + it feels like a very fitting end to this short little DIY story. 

Margarita Monday!

I don't suppose I can call myself a margarita master without sharing my not even a little bit secret recipes. We'll start off what I'm assuming will be a long adventure in margaritas worth making with the basic + delicious margarita.

I never measure anything when it comes to my drinks. So if you're hoping for a one part tequila, two parts mix guide -- you came to the wrong place. Plus it's all in what you like. For me, I like the taste of tequila + hate paying for that margarita mix.

Here's what you'll need:
- tequila (I'm using Jose Cuervo Gold because that's what we have. Free is my favorite kind of drinks.)
- mix (again, using the free stuff I already have on hand -- when I'm buying I usually go for the cheapest version)
- orange liqueur (Grand Marnier is totally worth the money y'all. You only use a little so it goes a long way)
- fresh lime
- margarita salt
- two glasses (or I guess if you have one of those fancy shakers you only need one glass + said fancy shaker)

Okay! So first, fill the cup you're going to be drinking out of with ice (I also like to keep my tequila in the freezer because the colder the better).  Start with the tequila -- I like to have more than 1/3 tequila but less than 1/2 tequila. So math aside -- after the tequila fill the glass most of the way up with the mix leaving about a shot's worth of room in the glass.

Add a splash of your orange liqueur + using the other glass mix your margarita by pouring from one cup to the other. When you feel like the margarita is mixed -- leave it in the mixing cup + squeeze the lime wedge over your drink + run the lime wedge around the rim of your drinking glass to add salt. Pour your margarita into the cup, add an awesome straw, + enjoy!

Do you have a special type of margarita you love? I tried a pomegranate passion fruit something or other a couple weeks ago + I'm pretty sure it was so sweet it gave me a cavity...